Initial+Proposal

For my Senior Seminar I am doing something that I enjoy, golf. I am hoping that by doing something I like I won’t become sick of it over the course of the year. My project is going to revolve around, how technology has changed the game of golf? My driving question is, How has the sport of golf evolved technologically from when it began hundreds of years ago and what affect it has had on players? In answering this question I think that people I present to will learn a lot about how technology affects the game. I am going to do this project like a time line. Areas of research I want to figure out are how and when the sport began, and from there see what technology was used then including clubs, balls, courses, tees, bags, etc… Then I can work my way through in history and see changes that occurred later, until eventually I get into today’s technology. After the time line my project is going to basically turn into a comparison. In order to truly figure out how technology has changed the game of golf, I will look into other possible research, which will include regulations and rules of golf, different golfers who were successful, and what technologies were more beneficial than others. I think sources that will serve as my topic overview will be the internet sources that I am beginning to find because they answer a lot of the background research I will need, including golfers, courses, rules, today’s clubs and other things. My main keystone I feel will come from a book or two that can go into the history of golf and can tell me about old golf clubs, golf balls, and so on. I think it is very possible I will find a book specifically on my topic, or at least very close. I think this topic will take time and work in order to find the right resources, not necessarily a lot of them, but good resources that contribute to my overall question of how technology has changed the game of golf. I think that it will take hard looking and some resources may only give me bits and pieces, but hopefully I can put it all together. My mentor, my father, will be breathing down my neck the whole time. I know him well enough to understand that he is going to ask me everyday what I have done to further my project. Also my expert, my uncle, is a golf instructor and has some great information to give me. He has books on golf, and understanding of the game better than anyone I know. Problems I may meet are mainly finding the information I am looking for, while at the same time ignoring the junk that doesn’t apply to me. I will have to really read through articles and highlight important parts. Also I think I have a problem on how to present the project in an interesting way. I want it to be different and outstanding from other boring projects. I have not figured out how I am going to do that yet, but I will need to figure it out. My goal is for my project to be different, and I want it to be fascinating to the audience. Another goal is for it to be somewhat interactive with my audience, possibly experiments.